Here By My Side
by FireMaiden22
Summary: It has been 2 years since Zuko became Fire Lord, Mai and ZUko have broken up, but she is still in love with him... One Shot. MaiXZuko


I was drab. Plain. Boring. Depressing.

He's even told me I am. He said I was just like a big, gray blob with no emotion.

But I do have emotion… I have it towards him. I can feel the pound of my heart when he is in the same room as me. I feel the sinking feeling when he is not here beside me. I also feel the burning rage in my heart when I see him with the Southern Watertribe's Princess.

My name is Mai; I am a nobleman's daughter. I live within the Fire Nation, right next to the man I loved, the Fire Lord Zuko. Two years ago, he was crowned the Fire Lord after Avatar Aang defeated Zuko's demented father, Lord Ozai. Zuko and I were in a relationship after he was crowned, but our relationship was not working because we fought a lot due to when he left me before he was crowned to join the Avatar…

We've been "_just friends" _for the past year and a half. It is torture to see the beautiful Waterbender, Katara, and my once love, Zuko, walk upon my streets smiling and laughing… I wanted him back… To hold his hands again, to kiss his lips, to feel the way I once felt when he wrapped his arms around me…

I was sent an invitation to Zuko's eighteenth birthday party, I would go.

I wore a red, black, and pink kimono to his party. I let my hair down and curled it around my face. When I entered Zuko's ballroom, most people gasped and pointed, bewildered by the fact that I was beautiful.

The first person to greet me was my good friend Ty Lee. She ran over and hugged me, Ty Lee was wearing a long, pink dress which only had one shoulder strap, and her hair was up in a twisted bun, "MAI! I didn't expect to see you here because… of _certain reasons._" She shrugged her shoulders in an unsure manner. I shook my head, "It is fine, Ty, I won't let it drag me down." I smiled, but I could feel my eyes not smiling along.

Ty Lee linked arms with me and we walked around the room. We had stopped to get refreshments when we heard someone behind us, "Well, isn't it my knife-throwing, psychopath best friend, Mai…" I turned around and gasped. It was Azula, I hadn't seen her since she had broken down because Ty Lee and I had betrayed her two years earlier. Her hair was shorter, much shorter, it grazed her shoulders, and a flower pinned back her bangs, and she wore a red and white Cheongsam.

Azula smiled at me, and held out her arms, "It's good to see you, Mai!" I hugged her, "It's good to see you too, Zuzu! So, I don't really have any right, but why are you here? I thought you went… well, crazy?" Azula laughed, "I am a changed person, I have made many new friends and learned ways to control my anger instead of Firebending it all out. And why would I give up the chance to see all my friends again!" She tilted her to the side and smiled, "Well, I need to find Uncle Iroh; we need more tea for the guests! See you around, Mai! Ty Lee!" She nodded to us both and walked away, Ty Lee and I looked at each other, Ty Lee looked frightened, "I thought she was going to barbeque us!" I nodded and laughed, "Me too!"

We walked away laughing, we met with many familiar faces but seemed different in many ways. We saw Toph, who had grown her hair out long and had her bangs out of her face; she also was a few inches taller and had gained many new feminine qualities. Avatar Aang had grown his hair back out and seemed mature and had grown a few inches as well. Sokka and Suki had been married for a year and both had changed, Sokka's hair was shorter and Suki's was longer, but Sokka's personality still stayed the same. But I did not see Katara or Zuko while in the ballroom.

I told Ty Lee I way going to take a walk in the garden, just to get some time to breathe, and she just smiled and said, "Don't be gone too long!" I walked outside and let the warm air of the Fire Nation surround me; I took a deep breath and walked to the little pond in the center of the garden.

Little baby Turtleducks swam around the pond following their mother everywhere she went. I put my hand on the closest tree, and closed my eyes, I pictured Zuko and I as children running around the tree, smiling and laughing, our faces all aglow. A tear rolled down my cheek and I fell against the tree sobbing.

"Zuko, you are so funny when you try to be!" I heard a girl laugh; I stood up and climbed up the tree. I saw Katara walk over to the pond, she was wearing a blue sleeveless dress, which had lace decorating the bottom and her hair reached her lower back and curled. Zuko ran over to her side, I smiled when I saw his face. His left eye was still scarred from his father burning him; his brown hair was down and brushed his eyebrows and ears. Katara held out her hands and the water started rippling, she span around and the water rose, then she snapped her hands towards Zuko and the water splashed against him.

Zuko tackled Katara into the pond, and they splashed each other playfully. A tear rolled down my cheek as I watched. Katara then threw her arms around Zuko and she kissed him. I covered my mouth with my hands to keep myself from screaming; I stealthily jumped down from the tree and ran into the ballroom. I couldn't stop sobbing, I ran straight for the exit. Ty Lee spotted me though and grabbed my arm, "Mai, you are leaving so soon?" I turned towards her and she gasped. Her grip loosened and I ran away from her… the ballroom… the pain… the scars… the wishes… the man I loved most in the entire world.

For weeks, I lay in bed, sobbing and crying out all my tears. Zuzu had really changed… She stayed with me everyday and night trying to make me smile and taking care of me. I slowly became ill and weak, all the color from my face disappeared and the color from my golden eyes slowly became gray. I would just lie on my side and stare into the abyss of childhood memories of Zuko and I, it was becoming my world… I knew eventually it would become my permanent world, and I would slip away from this world… I would die…

One day, Azula left me… She left me all alone as the tears waterfall out of my eyes… _I have no one now_, I thought, _I am going to die like this_… I heard someone enter my room the next day; I assumed it was my parents grieving my pre-death. But as soon as his hand touched my shoulder I knew who it was, it was the Fire Lord. He sat on the bed next to me; I couldn't see him because I was facing the other way. Zuko looked down at his hands.

"Azula came and got me… She said that you were slipping into another world, that you hardly ever blinked and would cry nonstop for hours at night… She told me that you saw Katara kiss me at my party." I felt a sob hanging in my chest, but he continued, "You didn't stick around to see what happened after that… I pushed her away from me, asking what she was doing, she said that this was meant to be, that a fortuneteller had told her she would marry a strong Bender, and she said that I was one, so it had to be me… I disagreed with her, I reminded her of Aang, Aang is the greatest Firebender I have ever seen, the greatest _Bender _I have ever seen. She was meant to be with him, just like he was meant to be with her… Just like I am meant to be with you…

"Mai? Did you hear me?" He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me on my back. He gasped, the color in my eyes had fully turned gray and my breathing had stopped. He gathered my limp body up in his arms, "Mai, don't leave me like this! I still need you, I have always loved you, I have never stopped loving you… I think of you everyday, and everyday you are not by my side, it pains me to think that you are somewhere else, maybe loving another man… PLEASE! Just don't leave me like this!"

Zuko kissed me then, the childhood memories that played over and over in my mind came to a cease, and faded into a blurry world. It was like he breathed the life back into me, like he breathed my soul back into me. The gold color rushed back to my eyes, and the pink rushed back into my cheeks and skin. My blurry world then became clear and I saw Zuko… I reached up and Zuko grabbed my hand and pressed it to his face, I smiled, "I have never stopped loving you either… I love you, Zuko." We embraced and kissed passionately…

The End.


End file.
